February 21, 2009

200 Freestyle - Last year Rip went in as the top seed only to get third. No doubt this year though - Rip led coast to coast along with teammate Kyle Winiecki. For Rip it broke the school record set hours earlier by Stephen. For Kyle it was a new lifetime best - leapfrogging him from the 1:46 range to 1:43 - no need for 1:44 or 1:45. Isaac also established a new lifetime best - knocking a 1/4 second off of his previous best to move into 4th. In the consol heat, Eric Ross established himself as the consol king. After a disappointing morning swim - he stormed back to drop nearly three seconds to go 1:47.50. We used prelims as a tryout for the fourth leg of our 800 Freestyle relay. The guys were impressive across the board. Dan Jones and Ryan Ortmann going 1:52.1 and 1:51.3 were probably the most shocking. Still, there were enough lifetime bests to go around - Adam Glover 1:49.6, Alex Boyer 1:49.3, Alex VanHuis 1:47.4, Pelka 1:47.2, Doug Schranck 1:46.9 and the winner for that fourth relay spot - Derek Schneider 1:45.31

100 Breaststroke - A night after the disappointment of the 200 IM, Stephen took back a little piece of history in the breaststroke. This was an event Wheaton had their eyes on and with good reson - Jon Nitz is fast. He's a sprinter though so when he and Stephen turned at the 50, I knew we had it - sure enough, Stephen came home in 29.79 to break Zach Jole's meet record with a 56.61. Andy slipped a spot - going 1:00.31 and bring an end to his breaststroke experiment. In Consols Adam Van Huis reached down into his sprint reserves to go a LTB 1:02.38. Mike Moravek was just back at 1:03.0 - not what we were aiming for, but good enough for 11th. We were excellent in our morning swims - Buck a 1:09, Alex VanHuis a 1:00.78 and a breakthrough swim for Ben Coder who bypassed the 1:02 zone, cruising in in 1:01.97.

100 Backstroke - After watching Varner go a 52.64 on Thursday's relay - expectations were high in the 100 and he came through again - this time going a 52.75 - a little off but still good enough for a 'B' cut and a nice second-place birthday present. Bob went a little faster at night, but never really look comfortable as we went a LTB 54.03. Pat, who snuck into finals, made it worthwhile - clocking his first sub-56 time! We didn't have anyone in consols - but did enjoy some good swims in the morning. Dan Jones won the latest Jones-Ortmann showdown 59.0 to 1:01.2. Clinton Scheirer also clocked a LTB 58.63 as did Tommy who took over a second off of his lifetime best - 56.64.

800 Freestyle Relay - OK - we're going to save the story of our 'C' relay for a little later. Let's just say we did some re-shuffling and had to go with our 5-8th 200 freestylers for the 'A' and even had to dip down to our 16th fastest guy to complete the 'B' team. That 'B' group didn't disappoint though - as they swam away with their heat - Blake 1:45.4, Glover 1:48.3, Eric a little slower 1:48.6 before Tom Stowe - he of a 1:55.5 lifetime best - splits 1:49.50. When it comes to the 'A' team, they too didn't disappoint as they posted a five-second win over Wheaton. Doug led it with a 1:45.55 while Isaac followed with his first-ever sub-1:46 split. Alex VanHuis continued with a 1:45 of his own before Bryan Pelka anchored in 1:45.18.

The win was especially enjoyable because it was essentially with our 'B' guys, but also because it was the first-ever conference title for Isaac Rothenbaum - a guy who didn't make our scoring team last season, and a relay title for Bryan and Alex - a first for both.